Android: Changing nextcloud account/server URL (domain name or IP change)

[fermulator]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Have been running nextcloud for about a year. Access is done via browser on notebooks/desktops, and on Android apps.

Recently my domain has had to change, so my dynamic DNS is now "bar.mydomain.com" instead of "foo.olddomain.com".

I fixed the backend server a few weeks ago, and started using the new domain on desktop systems. But I failed to pre-emptively change the Android apps, so they were tied to the old domain for a while during the overlap, and just today the domain was shutdown.

Now the app says:

"(!) Server not available", but the user can still browse the last-cached list and if any local files were available.

If we go into manage accounts, I see the existing account

USER, [email protected]
but any attempt to edit its properties result in
"Error retrieving user information", Unknown host exception

Describe the solution you'd like

Is it possible to support in the client a CHANGE URL/IP functionality?

Describe alternatives you've considered

Certainly I could probably DELETE and RE-ADD, which may be a reasonable workaround. However I'm wary to lose all "local files".

Additional context

Probably also needs consideration for the iOS app too.

[AndyScherzinger]

@tobiasKaminsky what do you think? We has this option a while ago for a long time but then dropped it. Likely dropped it for a good reason, while I can't remember it. Certificates? Access-Tokens? Else?

[fermulator]

Specific to my situation, would appreciate any guidance/recommendations as to the impact of "delete and re-add" in the interim. Thanks!

[fermulator]

Any update please?

I'd left my client in this state to help test once we decided what to do.
However it's been over 1 month without NextCloud access for me :)
Perhaps I should just delete and re-add ... (will do so if no response by end of week)

[tobiasKaminsky]

As far as I remember there was never the option to change url/user for an already defined account, due to security reasons.
Otherwise an attacker with access to your device could change it within the app and you would not notice it.
So the only way is to add a new account.

However I'm wary to lose all "local files".

All your local files within NC app folder are already synced, so you cannot lose them.

[fermulator]

Just tried it; considerations:

1. if local files _were_ added, there's seemingly no way to tell what is not sync'd (in my case, I was pretty sure I'd not added any files manually since before the domain change, so made the assumption I wouldn't lose anything)

2. we definitely lose all of our settings in remove+add; (i.e. InstantUpload settings are gone)

[redtux]

I have just tried to add a new account to my cloud with a new URL, and can confirm that all the files have to be copied again. 🙄

Does it make sense to move my downloaded files from my old profile in Android/media/com.nextcloud.android to the new profile's folder? Or would this just confuse the app?

[maxim-kukushkin]

As far as I remember there was never the option to change url/user for an already defined account, due to security reasons.
Otherwise an attacker with access to your device could change it within the app and you would not notice it.
So the only way is to add a new account.

However I'm wary to lose all "local files".

All your local files within NC app folder are already synced, so you cannot lose them.

In which way is it a security issue? How is me as a user opening one dialog window to create an account and upload files is different from me as a user opening another dialog window to change server URL? If some malicious app has such an access that it can modify NextCloud's application settings, what prevents it from just reading the files and uploading them to a 3rd party server?

It doesn't have to be a simple operation like "update config". But you can automate this by creating a new account and doing an import of local files + folder sync list and then removing the old account. But this action (the same as creating a new account and adding files) can only be invoked through UI by the user.

This is a huge usability issue for users. Many times people have to relocate [next/own]cloud instance within the web-server, or change a dynamic DNS name, or change from an IP to a DNS name, or change a port number due to a new network/router configuration. Now imagine that people have lots of notes, photos, may be music, etc. manually chosen for syncing (just because people rarely can afford downloading the whole NAS storage to their phones). Such a simple thing then becomes a nightmare!

I don't believe there can't be a workaround found for this security concern. As other people suggested it (fortunately!) can be done by the user via config in the desktop application. How is that different?

[maxim-kukushkin]

to add to the above - if the concern is that some real sneaky person takes my phone in hands and modifies the settings in the app - I guess this might be the least of the issues. At this point it's user's choice: either I don't use pin/fingerprint and intentionally say that my phone and info can be accessed by everyone, or my phone is already protected by the OS's authentication mechanisms, so there's nothing for a single app to worry about. Even more, some settings can be done in the OS to require additional authentication to open a specific app. So, my point here - physical access to phone's screen is user's responsibility, not application's.

Worst case, URL configuration can be protected by a requirement to have an authentication on the device (like banking applications do)

[chainria]

Really? EVERY App which uses NC permits to change these. It's only because of the Nextcloud App itself I have to keep running NC on my old domain as well. Please, can this simple feature bee added soon?

[m-ri]

I have a rooted phone. How can I change server's URL? I've took a look at /data/data/com.nextcloud.client, but I didn't see nothing interesting (sqlite MDBs were not useful)

[tobiasKaminsky]

Closing an favor of #4157